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Here are 28 entertaining minutes of John Malkovich and John Hodgman talking Being John Malkovich, from the Being John Malkovich Criterion Bluray. (Affiliate link!)

September 15, Charlie will be talking with Iain Reid online as part of Calgary's Wordfest 25@25. Ordinarily the festival is a Canadians only thing, but for Charlie (and because of his connection to Canadian Reid), an exception has been made. You can watch online if you buy a ticket! $15CAD.

We're thrilled to announce that Wordfest fave Iain Reid invited Charlie Kaufman to be his virtual stage mate for this exclusive 25@25 conversation on Sept. 15. (And yes, we know that while Charlie is one of the world's most celebrated filmmakers and the author of the newly released novel Antkind, he is neither a Wordfest alumnus nor a Canadian fiction writer. But he is the director of I'm Thinking of Ending Things, the movie adaptation of Iain's bestselling novel, which debuts on Netflix on Sept. 4. This pairing is such a gift that we had to make an exception.)

The 60-minute conversation, hosted by Shelley Youngblut, will start at 7:00 PM MT. (The pre-show will begin at 6:50 PM MT.) 

25@25 pass holders will be automatically registered for this event, with access to the live stream on Wordfest.com, as well as the option of watching it on demand whenever works for you.

Single tickets are now on sale for $15, and include on-demand viewing of this event only. (You can always upgrade to a full pass at any time for access to all 13 anniversary events. Just email boxoffice@wordfest.com.)

You'll also receive our unique Digital Doggie Bag sent to your email after the event, with all the links, goodies, and references from the conversation. (Source)

Little article about it over at the Calgary Herald:

“Charlie Kaufman is obviously the exception to the rule, in that he is neither a Canadian nor a Canadian fiction writer,” says WordFest CEO Shelley Youngblut. “In some ways, this event symbolizes where WordFest is now. I’ve been working for months to get Charlie Kaufman. And we did it, finally. We are the only ones I know of that are actually presenting the two of them together in a real conversation, not just a radio or TV hit. It’s going to be an hour with the two of them.” (Source)

Charlie seems to have entered a Zenlike state of indifference where it comes to making movies: if I makes a movie, great; if I don't, that's fine too. On the surface this might sound bad, but really it's a pretty good approach, if you ask me:

It’s probably gotten less and less urgent for me to make movies over the last five years, sure. I’m getting older. My life has changed in a lot of ways. I just don’t feel that ambitious in that way. I don’t feel like I need to be part of this. I have a weird, antagonistic relationship with the business.

Right. But you’ve always had that.

Yeah, but I think a lot of the antagonism before might’ve been more, “I’m angry that I’m not getting to do things.” And now it’s sort of like, I don’t care about it. I don’t want it. I mean, I like working with actors and I like making movies. And if it happens, cool. But if it doesn’t, fine. That’s how I feel now. And it feels better to me.

[...] You know what happened? We’ve hit Anomalisa. We made it ourselves. We made it in the middle of nothing in the middle of nowhere. We didn’t know what we had. We finished it. We started sending it to Telluride and Venice and Toronto [film festivals], and these people went crazy for it. And it won! And everybody was bidding on it to buy it, because we didn’t have distribution. And we won the Silver Lion at Venice. And I thought, holy cow. And then … nothing happened. The movie didn’t do any business. And I really felt weird about that, because this is the second time that’s happened to me. And it’s like, I just stopped caring. And this thing with Netflix is … It doesn’t matter. There’s no box office. The movie will play on Netflix forever – and it won’t disappear in a week because the box office isn’t doing well. And that’s fine with me. And so, that sort of pushed me in the direction of not caring I think. Not that I don’t want to work or not be interested. It just means that it’s outside of my control. (Source)

That's via an interview at Uproxx.

This is really neat. Chay Collins is interested in movie credits--how they play out on the screen, their relationship to a film, how filmmakers use them to complement (or not!) a movie. "I'm Thinking of How Anomalisa Ended Things" is a deep dive into this. The whole thing's entertaining and informative; halfway through we get to Charlie ("Hollywood's biggest overthinker") and, of course, Anomalisa. Neat cameo by Charlie, too, backing up Chay's thoughts at an Anomalisa Q&A.

Thanks to Chay!

On a related note: THREE MORE DAYS! (Or two? Depending on timezones.)

Rotten Tomatoes attempts to answer your pre-viewing questions re: I'm Thinking of Ending Things, by asking questions and grabbing relevant snippets from various reviews of the film. Pretty neat. If you've wondered any of the following questions, click on through:

Will Charlie Kaufman fans like it?

Which of his films is it most reminiscent of?

What else is it like?

Will fans of the book appreciate the adaptation?

Does the movie work as a horror film?

So it’s pretty heady?

Is it maybe too weird for some viewers?

How are Jesse Plemons and Jessie Buckley?

And what about Toni Collette and David Thewlis as the parents?

Who else deserves recognition?

So is it good or bad?

Will we need to see it more than once?

The New Yorker profile Jessie Buckley, and while there's not a lot re: Ending Things, there's this nugget on what it was like working with CK (SPOILERY):

The movie is, to use the year’s most well-worn adjective, surreal: characters suddenly age thirty years, or break into songs from “Oklahoma!” “The first-ever note I got from Charlie, even in the audition, was ‘This girl is molecular,’ ” Buckley said. “I’m, like, What the hell does ‘molecular’ mean?”

During filming, she and Kaufman would e-mail odd inspirations back and forth: Anne Sexton poems, A.S.M.R. videos. Did she ever figure out what “molecular” meant? “I am a molecule of myself,” she speculated, of her character. “But I’m made up of atoms that Jake has created, which then explode and disintegrate.” Flustered, she blew a raspberry. “I was crap at science.” (Source)

A few too many good quotes in this one for me to post them all. BUT I WILL GIVE IT A RED HOT GO:

in his first years as a screenwriter Kaufman was an enigma. “I think there’s this mythology around me because I was, and am, kind of camera-shy[...] There were all these articles about me saying I wouldn’t give interviews. I kind of got mad at a guy once because he asked me, ‘Why don’t you do interviews?’ I was literally doing an interview with him at the time!”

That would be this interview with David Poland, back around the time of Synecdoche, New York.

Other stuff:

“I have heard that description ["mindf---"] of things I’ve done, but I don’t set out to do that. But I think the way to approach one’s work is to put it out in the world and let it do what it does. So if people want to call it a mindf— or say I’m weird, that’s their prerogative. But it’s not my intent.”

[...] His frequent producer Anthony Bregman puts it best. “He’s trying to really push you emotionally to feel things and release you from the need to explain what’s going on intellectually and just understand by how it makes you feel,” Bregman says. “It’s more a heartf— than a mind—.”

Jessie Buckley, on the script:

“I would read it two or three times a week and send Charlie an email saying, ‘Do not worry. I understand exactly what this is about.’ I would tell him everything I was thinking, and he would respond, ‘Amazing. That makes total sense!’ Then I’d reread the script and go back and say, ‘I’m sorry ­— that was completely ridiculous. This is what it’s really about!’ And he’d say, ‘Oh, that’s great!’”

Bregman on the ill-fated How and Why pilot:

“It was brilliant, but it wasn’t cheap and it wasn’t for everyone, and that’s the tricky thing[...] There’s this tricky thing that needs to get matched — the price of something versus what the potential audience is for it.”

Anomalisa troubles:

“Anomalisa” had been a particularly challenging experience; at one point funds were so low, a delivery person showed up to repossess the bottled water. (A fast-thinking producer hid the bottles in another room.)

On Ending Things:

“[‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’] took place in a car and a farmhouse, and I thought, ‘That sounds easy and inexpensive!’” Kaufman says. As it turned out, it was a very difficult production. The 30-day shoot was whittled down to 24. Kaufman had hoped to build a car and a farmhouse he could disassemble to get creative shots, but budget restrictions prohibited that.

Also the weather caused problems. Click on through for more. Worth it!

Anthony Bregman, Stefanie Azpiazu, and Bob Salerno will be talking Ending Things as part of IFP Week. What's IFP Week? "A week of meetings, panels, seminars, and networking opportunities dedicated to connecting compelling independent big screen, small screen, and audio creators to industry that can propel their projects and careers forward."

The Ending Things discussion will take place on Monday, September 21 from 7-8pm

Join us for a conversation with producers Anthony Bregman, Stefanie Azpiazu, and Bob Salerno as they discuss the production of Charlie Kaufman’s latest work I’m Thinking of Ending Things. (Source)

Ticket pricing info here.

Just a tiny little snippet that you don't have to click through for, because here's the whole thing:

While females struggle with aesthetics — hair done, face fixed, chin tweezed — Toni Collette’s struggling with prosthetics. “I age slowly in Charlie Kaufman’s ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things.’ I play four different versions. The oldest was 92. Tough experience getting that prosthetic makeup on. It’s bizarre to jump forward into what you might look like then.” She plays a mom whose son brings home a girlfriend. They live on a farm. Comes a snowstorm. Everyone’s stuck. But you can’t keep ’em down on the farm forever, ee-i-ee-i-oh. This movie happens starting Sept. 4. And like everything else anyone can think of, it’ll happen on Netflix. (Source)

But if you do click through, you have to scroll way down the page to get to the Collette bit.

Hooray! Reviews for I'm Thinking of Ending Things are starting to come in, and it's still early days but so far the news is good: 88% based on 26 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, as I type this. Concensus right now: "Aided by stellar performances from Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons, I'm Thinking of Ending Things finds writer-director Charlie Kaufman grappling with the human condition as only he can."

For context:
Being John Malkovich sits at 93% based on 134 reviews.
Adaptation does 91% based on 208.
Human Nature holds *cough* 49% *cough* based on 95.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind rates 79% at 164 reviews.
Eternal Sunshine goes 93% and 246.
Synecdoche, New York holds 68% based on 187 reviews.
Anomalisa 92%, 267 reviews.

Most of which is probably fair enough. I'd have prefered Synecdoche to be a little better regarded, but of all the Kaufman films--which are never for everyone--Synecdoche is probably the one that's not-for-everyonest.